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Hmm thats a tricky one as you have a poor PSU so you'll need to include a new one in your budget as your not going to be able to run a modern'ish card with that. I think you could pick up a 2nd hand 8800GT for around £60 and i'd use the rest on a decent PSU.
 
If i remember correctly the source engine is highly dependant on the CPU, i know CS:S is from a 2.5Ghz e7200 to a 3.8Ghz e7200 i gained about 200fps in the stress thest.
 
vaultingSlinky said:
I was hoping not to have to fork on a PSU, shame...makes the upgrade more of a pain :p

would a 8800GT handle source at max 1950x1080 with the 3000+ processor out of interest
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I think the 3000+ would hold you back a fair bit. If you were to budget £130 you could pick up a new PSU (£40), 8800GT(£60), 3800x2 (£30), You could easily clock the x2 to 2.5+ and the added core should be a nice bonus. The difference between that and your current rig would be like night and day.

I'm still on sk.939 myself (see sig) and think its a great platform which I plan to stay on for as long as possible. A lot of people will say 'Just go intel, its cheaper', but from what I've seen there is some great bargains out there and for a £'s you can have yourself a great system.
 
I used a 3000+ playing cs s and it did limit the fps a fair bit, upgrading to a 3700+ and overclocking it to 2.9 ghz doubled my fps.
 
I have:
X800 PRo
AMD 64 3200+
1 GB Corsair
120GB HDD
ASUS A8N-E

All running on a 300-350w PSU cant remember exactly which and cba to get the cover off!

I play CSS regularly and dont get any FPS issues but i dont run it on full settings as theres no need!

been goin for 2 years too :)
 
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dropped you an email mate, 8800gt would be overkill for just cs s and still would be held back by the cpu. I'd still go and get a second hand card, anything from a 6800/x800 upwards in pci-e would be great and shouldnt be too much for the psu.
 
when you say bare bones, do you mean like a shuttle pc? if thats the case those PSU are beasts!! i have a 1950XT running on a 300w shuttle PSU with no problem what so ever.

Not sure if i can mention this but i have a ATI x850XT for sale on the MM at the mo :P
 
A Mate of mine happily runs HL2 Lost coast on a AMD64 3000 and 6600gt with only a gig of ram.
CSS will run easy on that.

I can recal trying CSS for the first time years back on a AMD 2100+, gig of ram and a 9500pro, ran dead smooth back then too. Albeit not in 1920x1200, was medium settings on 1024x768 if I remember correctly!

You really do not need a good pc to run CSS.
 
All the source games work great with no hiccups on my dads system at 1280*1024 with all settings maxed and some AA + AF enabled

His spec is as follows:

AMD 64 3000+
1gb DDR PC3200 RAM
7600GT AGP graphics card

He used to use a 6800 (Vanilla 128mb) but when that died (My fault OC'd it too much :( ) i threw a 7600gt in which i bought from here just over a year ago.

So long story short i imagine something between a 6600gt and a 7600gt will do you well :)
 
From personal experience, 300W is way more than enough for a modest Source engine capable rig, my machine in sig draws about 250-270W under max load, heavily clocked.

What you have at the moment is:
OK enough CPU power.
OK enough RAM
OK electric
useless graphics....

So get a card, x800+ or Nvidia 7 series as advised, then look into the CPU upgrade later.

Not long ago both my mates had Athlon 3000's and we all played CS:S on lan without a problem, mine was the overclocked Oppy 144 @ 2.7Ghz tho, did spank the 3000's a bit! :D
 
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